“The Road to LA 28: The African Olympians,” a docu-reality collection spotlighting Africa’s Olympic aspirations, was formally introduced final week on the Worldwide Salon for Audiovisual Content material (SICA) in Ivory Coast. 

The mission will comply with athletes from seven African nations as they put together to qualify for the 2028 Olympic Video games in Los Angeles. Although nonetheless in early improvement, the collection is ready for twelve 24-minute episodes. Emmy-winning South African producer Dan Jawitz and former head of South African sports activities broadcaster SuperSport, Gary Rathbone, who’re on the helm of the formidable mission, are looking for further broadcast and institutional companions to assist the multi-year manufacturing.

The collection will chart the emotional and bodily journeys of Olympic medalists and rising hopefuls throughout a various vary of sports activities — from Africa’s well-established Olympic disciplines like long-distance working, boxing, swimming and soccer, to rising ones together with taekwondo, desk tennis, volleyball, and rugby. 

Extra two one-hour specials are deliberate for launch after the 2028 Video games to seize the athletes’ Olympic experiences and their return house.

For now, the collection will function athletes from Ivory Coast, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, however Jawitz says that just a few extra might make the rostrum. 

“We selected SICA in Abidjan to launch the present as a result of Ivory Coast has a fantastic sporting custom and has already confirmed themselves as Olympic medal winners, and can thus be an integral a part of the story we inform,” mentioned Rathbone. 

Karl Boluwa, networking supervisor at SICA, welcomed the mission’s announcement, saying, “We’re very honored that the producers have chosen SICA to launch the collection, and to use our platform to attain broadcasters and different organizations.

Thanks to productive conferences at SICA, the crew is now in discussions with a number of key broadcasters, together with Canal+ Worldwide, SABC, RTI (Côte d’Ivoire), RTS (Senegal), KBC (Kenya), ZBC (Zimbabwe), and Max TV (Ghana). They’re additionally in talks with the African Union of Broadcasting to distribute the collection throughout its community of greater than 40 member nations.